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Original Fiction Summer Goals


Pixileanin

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Hi!  This summer (6 days ago, exactly) I've set myself some original fiction writing goals.  One of the issues about writing original fiction is that it's LONELY.  I need a support group, and I was thinking that maybe there were other people out there who need one too.  It's hard to make visible progress when there aren't any deadlines or fans chomping at the bit for the next part of your story.   

One of the skills I need to learn is how to write fast, and how to write on a deadline.  I joined one of those four-month writing competitions on ffnet in January, where each member of a team had to write three one-shots every two weeks for ten rounds, based on different prompts and themes.  I did it.  I wrote a bunch of awful things, and some not so awful things.  There were a few things I could be proud of too, but I wouldn't have written them if I hadn't written all the other ick.  And I wouldn't have written any of it without a deadline.

So.  For my original fiction, I set some summer goals.  I found a few short story contests out there, and even though I'm not going to get any feedback or 'reviews', I get a deadline.  Here's what I'm going to do:

 

1) Write a short story/ one-shot between 1k-6k.  Deadline July 15th.

2) Write a short story under 10k.  Deadline July 31st.

3) Write a Sci Fi/Fantasy short story under 17k.  Deadline October 1st.

4) Write one character vignette for each of my original characters who want to be in my OF novel.  One due every week on Monday evening by 11 pm EST.  I'll promise myself to post them to the HPFT archive, just to have a place of accountability. First vignette is due Monday, June 11th.  (looks at calendar)... EEK!!  Fortunately, I already have a list of characters.  Also, I'm not holding myself to any of these initial ideas.  I fully recognize that whatever comes of these vignettes will change over time as I grow my plot.  No pressure to get it right, just to get it write.  (Ah haha. I'm so not funny.)

5) Make visible progress on my OF plot by doing outline work, writing setting snippets, or creating any other words I can throw down.  Weekly deadline every Tuesday evening by 9pm EST.  I won't post these.  This deadline is just for me.

 

That thing they say about 'measurable goals' applies here.  No "try to write', or 'think about'.  That will happen anyway.

Anyone want to join me??

By the way, this is now my summer original fiction writing mascot.

  :llamabanana:

 

 

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Guest Rumpelstiltskin

\O/ Absolutely! I've just put the first chapter of an OF project I'm working on into the queue recently and I'm extremely nervous and excited about it! 

I think I'll make it just one goal for now to
 

  1. Write two chapters a month until the thing is finished. [I'm going to go with chapter-oriented goals versus word count goals, but this will be roughly 6-7k per month]

which, hopefully by writing it down here, will get me to keep on track.

I'd also like to explore some original poetry so I want to throw out a little goal chart for that.

  1. write Romance genre poem [July 1st]
  2. write Dark/Horror genre poem [August 1st]
  3. write a MOOD inspired poem [September 1st]

Once I successfully complete the larger OF project I'm working on, I'll certainly update with a new goal [I just want to be able to focus on one large thing at a time].

But I will definitely be a support system for you, PIx! Congratulation on your OF journey! 

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I’m going to set 2 goals for myself and say I want to write an original one-shot by July 15th and complete 2 poems by September 1st.

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Jumping in on the OF goals bandwagon!! Writing OF is definitely lonely, and if there's a support group for this, please count me in! ^_^ I did write some OF last year, an 8K piece of short fiction, but it turned out to be...uncomfortably personal. :P So I never posted it anywhere.

20 hours ago, Pixileanin said:

One of the skills I need to learn is how to write fast, and how to write on a deadline.

@Pixileanin YES this. I already struggle to find the balance between writing and the rest of life in general, and when I finally do get down to write, I'm sooooo sloooowww. And so easily distracted. It's something I'm trying to do better.

Anyway, my goals for writing OF in the next few months:

1. One-shot, short (~3K) hopefully by 15 July

2. Longer short-story, (~8K), hopefully by mid August.

 

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Quote

 but it turned out to be...uncomfortably personal.

@teh tarik  That's probably a sign that it's a great story.  I struggle to make those personal connections to my stories all the time.  Sometimes, you have to be willing to put yourself out there.  Since we each have a July goal so far, I'd be willing to do some review swaps after July 15th. Incentive... motivation... *reaches for it*

Time to seriously look at my plots...

 

:llamabanana:

*rides cucumber llama into the original fiction sunset*

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Love your OF writing mascot, Pix! :D

Okay, so I've got a new idea brewing for a fantasy novel which is going to involve a LOT of world building before I can even begin writing or developing the characters. So to hold myself accountable, I'm breaking down the planning process and setting deadlines for each bit that needs to be covered. 

I want to stick to these to at least build the foundations of the world, and will add on to it later if more info is necessary. But it may be subject to some change in case my travel plans pan out.

Here goes! (I'll definitely need a lot of encouragement to keep to these deadlines)

 

World building targets:

1. Setting - terrain, atmosphere, laws of physics, seasons, habitability, calendar, natural resources, how it's different from Earth 

Due by midnight 10th June

2. Living beings - species, physical characteristics, identifiers, abilities, roles

Due by midnight 12th June

3. Society & culture - culture, population, types of beings in each geographical area, customs - birth/ death/ rite of passage, eating habits and arrangements, clothing, identifiers, greetings, gestures, languages, faith, art forms, ideal lifestyle, people's rights, citizenship, biases, societal hierarchy, issues faced, controversial topics of discussion, diversity, sexual habits, information flow & media present, ethics and values

Due by midnight 17th June

4. History - Records, old tales, where did the beings come from, evolution, development, past conflicts and agreements, advancements made by each section of peoples, relics, what is known/ not know/ suspected, border disputes

Due by midnight 19th June

5. Politics and economy - style of governance, power structure, prerequisites to be a part of the government, milestones, good & bad decisions made (overlap with history), crime and legal system, choosing of heirs, public perception, army, protection, trade & commerce channels, taxation(?)

Due by midnight 22nd June

6. Magic & technology - origin, types, replenishing power, limitations

Due by midnight 24th June

7. Buffer for any extra information 

Due by midnight 27th June

 

Character building

Work on character vignettes to begin from 29th June (or earlier if world building is done enough) - one vignette due every Friday - first due date 6th July

 

Plot building

Main plot arc & 3 major plot points to be decided by 10th July

Fleshing out of plot arc & minor plot points - Due by 10th September

 

Will add to this based on the progress I make. :)

 

edit: i just realised that if I keep to these deadlines, my novel planning will be done right on time for NaNo! 

Edited by Theia
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Love this! :hearteyes:

I have an OF novel plotted that I want to work on over the summer, and I'd like to write more in general, but I also have a lot of other work to do this summer because I'm working on my masters. 

GOALS

1. Write every day

2. Write the first draft of my novel

3. DO NOT DO NANO

I know that last goal seems off base, but I know from experience that NaNo is bad for my mental health. And yet, it's always really hard to resist. I think I'll be more successful in the long term if I skip it, so I'll need some support with that.

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Yes.  No NaNo for me either.  Writing fast isn't going to get my stories done.  Gotta leave room for the story to find itself.

@Theia I'm gonna hold you to those deadlines.  :P  Be ready for spam alerts!

@MuggleMaybe Once you get your words moving, you'll do great.  No NaNO!!!  Just words.  It's okay.  Only a little pressure from me and the cucumber llama!

@MalfoysAngel I'm looking forward to your first story goal!  

Lovely for all of you to join me in the madness!  I put down some planning words today.  There's a plot thread I wasn't sure about, so instead of staring at a blank page, I kept rewriting the same plot points over and over.  On the fourth rewrite of the same seven plot points, the plot points got rearranged, and something new finally shook loose, turning into another two pages of different plot points with different characters.  It wouldn't have happened if I just sat and stared at the paper.  Apparently, my muse hated the idea of rewriting the plot again in the wrong order.  

One point for me!

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Guest Tanda

I tried writing my first ever OF in my own language for one award event. I almost finished the goal, the required word count. But I couldn't finish by the deadline they set.  I think I didn't have a clear vision about my story at that time, I had some visual messages in my mind, but they were not strong enough for readers. Then I got an idea to change the plot to Urban Fantasy. I feel like this time, it will work for me. I won't set due date, nor word count. I will write when my Muse whispers to me.

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My goal is to start an original story this summer. I've written plenty in the past but over the last couple of years, new characters don't seem too anxious to talk to me. 

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This is amazing and I so need a strong club for my summer of OF! I finally have time to write again but also was looking for some external support and encouragement so this is PERFECT :wub: 

I’ll try to post about goals every end/start of the week to keep myself accountable. My main priority is OF but I have a few other summer fanfic goals too!

Original Fiction

1. Comprehensive plot map by June 30th.

2. Go along with JulNo if no holiday booked

3. 75k by the end of August

4. ? Vignettes for characters idea as per @Pixileanin‘s awesome idea!

Fanfiction

1. Finish Scorpius/JSP one-shot and have in the queue by Friday 15th. 

2. Revise Romione one-shots and queue. 

3. Revise Taking Care of Muriel and queue. 

4. Revise The Left-Behinds and queue. 

5. Sort out other fanfic and work out what to post and what to not bother with. 

6. Vocational Challenge entry by August 5th. 

So, my week’s goals:

1) finish Scorpius/James one shot

2) 1 page of plot map for Rocket Run

3) revise and post Romione one-shots

4) 1 character vignette

let’s see how we get on!

:llamabanana: - such an applicable emoji I love it :D

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Hi Guys!

I'm approaching my first deadline tomorrow night, my first vignette is due MONDAY night!!!  

Fortunately, I drafted a little something last night in a timed writing exercise where I just played with words.  @Rumpelstiltskin joined me with some 10 minute sprints, and I did a cool thing, a rather strange crash-and-burn thing, and then a little bit of a 500 word vignette.  I was lucky.  I'm keeping the cool thing and letting it sit a while as a possible plot for my first July short story.

Tonight, I'm going to hash out that vignette I started last night.  It won't be great, and I'm a bit 'meh' on posting it, but I keep reminding myself that it's the first of a bunch, and it will change, and the mediocrity of it is ACCEPTABLE for my goals this month.  Gotta just make it go.  I fully intend to pull it down when something better comes along.  The posting is just so I'll stay on deadline.  

Whew!

 

@Theia How's your setting target?  I see your deadline is tonight!  Hopefully, you've slapped down some words for it, but if not, you're welcome to join me in some writing sprints where I pretend to make my vignette a 'thing'.

@MuggleMaybe Did you write yesterday?  Today?  Did you write last week?  Any words are a win.  NO NANO!!!

@StarFeather How's your urban fantasy setting?  Is it still working?

@victoria_anne Any cool short story updates?  I don't know why I find the whole short story thing daunting, but I do.  I'm just scribbling randomly until I trip over something that I think is cool enough to continue.  What's your strategy?

@Margaret Yay!  Did any of your characters start speaking?  I know mine are tight-lipped at the moment, so I'm making other characters tell me all their dirty secrets until they decide to speak up and correct all the rumors.  

@TheGoldenKneazle Wow, that's a lot of stuff on your list.  How's your first week shaping up?

@MalfoysAngel and @teh tarik Your goals seem to be about a month away, but I know you've got stuff in your heads.  Any progress?

 

:llamabanana:

 

GO TEAM!!

 

 

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Thank you for the check in! <3 I'm a teacher and the last duty day is tomorrow, so after that I will really be trying to write. I haven't even started yet, whoops =P

Way to go, everyone, for setting goals and/or writing words! :roflol:

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Nice work, Pix!

Hmm well I managed to get some more work done on my challenge one-shot last night, and since I've got a relatively work-free few weeks now I'm hoping to do well with ticking goals off! Fingers crossed it all goes well for us :D 

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Great going, Pix! And thanks for checking in. <3 

I managed to meet the first deadline and I'm super excited with the way my world is building up! A lot of details cropped up as I was writing, which I hadn't thought about earlier and I'm looking forward to seeing where this ends up. :D

I might not get enough network coverage to post updates for the rest of this month, but I'll definitely be working towards keeping my goals and meeting those deadlines!

 

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15 hours ago, Pixileanin said:

@teh tarik Your goals seem to be about a month away, but I know you've got stuff in your heads.  Any progress?

Hey, thanks for the check-in...was not expecting that! :D

I have started outlining my story due for July - I don't think it's going to be very long ...hopefully it will be no longer than 4K. I just gotta figure out how dense / detailed I want the the story to be. I'm probably going for a lighter narrative touch, though, since it's just set in the real world.

I like being able to work on a couple of things at the same time, so currently I've also got a fanfic that I'm working on.

You sound like you're on to things, Pix! If you do post up your vignette, I'd read it. It gets easier with more practice.

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Ahhh thanks for letting me know about this thread and sorry it's taken me awhile to check it out--E3 has been a distraction for me so, uh, yeah. xD Anyway this sounds like a really lovely idea and I hope that you're able to accomplish your  writing goals! I would definitely love to help you in terms of encouragement and motivation if needed! c:

As for me,  I have been thinking about writing my own original fiction for a long time as well including something that's been part of my long-term project goal although I can't be too specific about it since I'm still plotting out all the ideas but there's alot to it so maybe I can try and work on that as often as I can while juggling time to apply for part-time jobs,  working my way towards a drivers' license, and doing other things regarding life and whatnot so I may be able to join.

Anyway here's my goals so far:

1. Write everyday!

2.  Write at least a few one shots (no longer than 75k but no less than 30k so somewhere between there?)

3.  Write original fiction story that's an idea that's been sitting with me since a week ago or two. Maybe working on drafting it? No limits on the word count but must divide them by chapters once I'm done with drafting them but that's for later. I guess my goal is just to have it written for now. 

I honestly don't have a deadline yet but I was thinking of making one for my one shots so that may help out? Like around late July or August maybe. I'm hoping to at least get some writing time in this summer either way so there's also that. 

Wait, am I too late in joining this or?

Good luck to everybody else who's also participating in this as well! You can do it! You got this! c:

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Guest Rumpelstiltskin

\O/ I did it! I finished my June goal of writing two chapters (which ended up being 3677 words). Thanks so much @Pixileanin for writing with me the other night -- it pushed me to write during my very busy weekend when the last thing I wanted to do was write (and it was sooo worth it).

This means that I can take a "break" from OF to finish a non-OF chapter (because people on A03 are starting to poke me).

BUT I still want to stay ahead because I have to figure out how to both poem and romance by the first of July! :/ And I'd like to get started on July goals because I feel like if I can stay ahead that'll allow me some cushion on months that don't work out so well writing-wise.

Anyway ...

\O/ :bouncing: JUNE GOALS ARE DONE!

 

I'm so happy to see everyone's goals and progress so far! \O/ Great job everyone!

Edited by Rumpelstiltskin
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@danicasyer There is no late, just jump right on in!

@Rumpelstiltskin Thank YOU!  It's a different mindset to jump in with OF brainstorming, so I was very lucky to have a partner to get me started!

I'm a few hours late, but I'm posting my first wobbly, unpolished vignette right now.  Its.nothing great, but it's a deadline done.  :)

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Here to update/revise my summer goals and drop off extra weekly goals. I just keep entering challenges... YOLO :llamabanana:

Spoiler

Original Fiction

1. Comprehensive plot map by June 30th.

2. Go along with JulNo if no holiday booked - 30k or 50k goal?

3. 50k/75k (depending on JulNo goal) by the end of August

4. ?Vignettes for characters idea - Tam/Ffion origin piece? 

Fanfiction Writing

1. Finish Scorpius/JSP one-shot and have in the queue by Friday 15th of June.

1a. Post for Prefect's Celebration Challenge by July 1st.

2. Decide whether to enter Auror challenge, due July ?15th.

6. Vocational Challenge entry, on post-war prosthetics development for spell damage, queued by August 1st.

7. Anything But Harry challenge entry, on the Autumn Court, by August 10th.

Fanfiction Posting

1. Revise Romione one-shots and queue. 

2. Revise Taking Care of Muriel and queue. 

3. Revise The Left-Behinds and queue. 

4. Sort out other fanfic and work out what to post and what to not bother with.

 

Goals for W/C June 11th:

1) finish Scorpius/James one-shot and queue

2) 1 page of plot map for Rocket Run OF - working on it

3) revise and queue Romione one-shots

4) ? 1 character vignette

5) start ACOTAR one-shot for Anything But Harry Challenge - I saw the challenge posted and couldn't help myself O.o gotta jump on the bandwagon while the muse is aboard, eh?

Edited by TheGoldenKneazle
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@TheGoldenKneazle that is quite the list!  And adding more to it?! Wow.

I hope it's okay if I jump in!  I want to finish the draft of my fake dating novel by July 31.  This is probably too ambitious of a goal, but I'm hoping that with some time off from work over the next 6 weeks that I will have time to do this. I figure that even if I don't meet the goal I'll have made lots of progress so that will still be a victory of sorts.

I also want to enter at least one challenge over the summer.

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Thanks guys!! I'm really glad I jumped aboard the muse ship last week because very suddenly my climbing holiday to Scotland has been brought forward to Wednesday and could last anywhere up to a month O.o so, er... I'm gonna take my notebook for my OF and try to do stuff in the tent but I won't have my laptop :o  (scary!) 

Spoiler

 

Original Fiction

1. Comprehensive plot map by June 30th.

2. Go along with JulNo if no holiday booked - 30k or 50k goal?

3. 50k/75k (depending on JulNo goal) by the end of August

4. ?Vignettes for characters idea - Tam/Ffion origin piece? 

Fanfiction Writing

1. Finish Scorpius/JSP one-shot and have in the queue by Friday 15th of June.

1a. Post for Prefect's Celebration Challenge by July 1st.

2. Decide whether to enter Auror challenge, due July ?15th.

3. Vocational Challenge entry, on post-war prosthetics development for spell damage, queued by August 1st.

4. Anything But Harry challenge entry, on the Autumn Court, by August 10th.

Fanfiction Posting

1. Revise Romione one-shots and queue. 

2. Revise Taking Care of Muriel and queue. 

3. Revise The Left-Behinds and queue. 

4. Sort out other fanfic and work out what to post and what to not bother with.

 

 

As for last week's goals... 

1) finish Scorpius/James one-shot and queue

2) 1 page of plot map for Rocket Run OF

3) revise and queue Romione one-shots

4) ? 1 character vignette

5) start ACOTAR one-shot for Anything But Harry Challenge

... I'm happy with how that turned out!! As actually writing and plotting is my priority, wooo. 

However as I'm not sure when I'll next have time for writing etc, due to moving house in the next two days and then leaving on a giant climbing road trip, I will leave big goals for now! What I do really need to do:

1) post in the Prefect's Celebration Challenge about Slow Love

2) ensure I have my pen, notebook, and plan saved for Rocket Run OF

:llamabanana:

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@Rhaenyra You're right on time to jump in!  How far along are you in the draft?

@TheGoldenKneazle That sounds like so much fun! Have a great time on your climbing trip!  If anything, it should give your muse time to bounce ideas around inside your head, or clear your mind... depending on how your muse takes to the climbing!  Pack an extra pen for me!

 

As for my goals, it's Monday, which means I'm supposed to have another vignette done tonight.  I guess I'll be doing some timed writing to make that happen.  I've been working on the Stop Shop and Rework it challenge, which isn't OF, but has a looming deadline.  Here's where I have to learn about balance.  

Ride those words!

:llamabanana:

Edited by Pixileanin
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10 hours ago, Pixileanin said:

@Rhaenyra You're right on time to jump in!  How far along are you in the draft?

 

Right around 5k.  I don't think this is going to be very long though, probably 60-70k, so if I can get my butt in gear for Camp NaNo I'll be fine.  I'm still trying to find my groove, though.  I am pantsing this more than usual and keeping my fingers crossed that since there's no big secret to foreshadow that it'll turn out okay.

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